The present invention relates to anti-frost and anti-snow windshield covers for use on vehicles not afforded garage or carport protection.
Devices of this type address the problem of frost and snow build-up on windshields by using a material (usually plastic sheets) to cover, either, the entire vehicle or just the front windshield. The present invention concerns itself with the latter.
Prior devices of this type require the user to drape a sheet-like material across the windshield, arrange it for a reasonably conforming fit, clamp one side of the cover in the front door, walk around the vehicle and clamp the other side of the cover in the other front door. If the user has positioned the cover to his satisfaction, application is complete. If the user decides that he has not properly positioned the cover, the vehicle doors must be re-opened, cover repositioned, and cover sides re-clamped in each door again . . . and so on, until the user is satisfied that there is good windshield coverage. As an aid to positioning and clamping the material, some products have magnets imbedded in the borders of the window covering for anchorage to the vehicle's frame while other products have other/additional anchoring aids such as snaps, suction cups, etc.
Removal of existing covers requires the user to walk around and reach across the vehicle to release the various anchoring devices used, shake any precipitation off the cover and fold it up for storage until later reapplication is desired.
The most substantial difficulty with existing devices is the time-consuming and cumbersome method of application, which, during cold/wet/dark ambient conditions, is quite uncomfortable. This difficulty is due to the use in prior devices of materials so inelastic that unless pulled taut they don't lie flat on the windshield, and which are so structurally weak that unless clamped they slide down the windshield. Thus, the user must take the time to ensure that the sheet properly covers the windshield and will remain in place. Removal of a known cover, though less time-consuming than its application, is still excessive since the user must at least unclamp the material from both doors and release any other anchoring devices.
Another problem encountered with existing covers is that the user can easily soil his clothes when reaching across the precipitation-coated cover to apply or release the various anchoring devices. A further problem is that, when the material is thin plastic, the sheet often freezes to the windshield because of moisture accidentally transferred from the cover's wet side to its dry side during between-use storage; this moisture transfer occurs because the sheet evolves into a crinkled and inflexible surface, which traps and retains moisture, that inhibits like-side-to-like-side folding of the cover for storage.